Just my thoughts on all things Soccer.
"I guess I've never viewed soccer as some sort of controlled substance. To me, it's probably more like Nutella. The rest of the world clearly loves it and puts it on almost everything, but here in America we're like, "I don't know, man, it tastes like almonds."

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Blatter - 2018 World Cup should go to CONCACAF

Sepp Blatter spoke the words that no European wanted to hear and he did so right before meeting with British Treasury Minister Gordon Brown.

"We have decided in the FIFA executive committee that rotation will be installed, and we have made rotation until and including 2014. The executive committee must take a decision whether the rotation should include all the confederations, in which case the 2018 World Cup should be in CONCACAF."

However, he also opened the door to the possible idea of considering both North and South America to be one group. If that were the case, 2014 would be the year for the Americas and Asia might get 2018.

I would guess that either of these scenarios would be hard for most European fans to digest. Also, could Blatter also be suggesting that if CONCACAF gets 2018, Asia could get 2022? That would mean Europe would not host the finals for 20-years. Is this really a possibility?

If 2014 is to be an Americans World Cup, then FIFA needs to make this decision quick to allow the US and Mexico time to come up with a plan (the decision will be made in November). I would guess it is a bit late for either country to really put something great together, but at least they would have a chance.

That said, if 2018 is awarded to CONCACAF, it will be the US's to lose. Mexico would probably make a play for it, but they would be hard pressed to pull it away. Their big advantage might be pointing the popularity of the sport in the two countries, but that didn't keep the finals out of the US in 1994, so it probably would not work in 2018.